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Transparency was at the center of a City Hall debate last week, as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other city leaders squabbled over notifications about alleged police misconduct. As the city spending board prepared to vote on a $150,000 settlement in a lawsuit against a police officer, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young and Comptroller Joan Pratt complained that they had not been told about a previous $100,000 settlement involving the same officer. Rawlings-Blake hit back, saying Young and Pratt should have asked more questions if they wanted the information. The mayor said that earlier payouts had no relevance to a current settlement proposal. Previous...

Related "George Nilson" Articles

Transparency was at the center of a City Hall debate last week, as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other city leaders squabbled over notifications about alleged police misconduct.
As the city spending board prepared to vote on a $150,000 settlement in...

The recent closure of the popular Harbor East restaurant Chazz: A Bronx Original came without apparent warning or immediate explanation from its owners.
But court records show that the restaurant and its owners have faced legal actions in recent years...

When Brian Frosh became Maryland's attorney general several weeks ago the program for the investiture ceremony informed us that he was Maryland's 46th attorney general. There are some traditionalists, however — and perhaps some querulous archival...

The recent security breach at a Baltimore Police station — the second incident in five months — is raising questions about whether the city strikes the right balance between making such buildings accessible and protecting those inside.
On Tuesday, police...

Baltimore's planning department was tricked into awarding $2.1 million in historic tax credits to a Little Italy condominium project based on a "forged or altered" document, a city review panel says in a new report.As a result, two dozen condo...

The developer of a Little Italy condominium project says he had nothing to do with a document the city calls "forged or altered" that resulted in $2.1 million in erroneous tax credits for the building.
Union Box Co. developer Larry...

When Baltimore residents settle lawsuits alleging police brutality or other misconduct, they must promise to keep silent about the incidents that sparked the suits — an arrangement that shields key details from the public. The penalty for disobeying:...

Edwin F. Hale Sr., the Baltimore developer and former CEO of First Mariner Bancorp, scored a victory Wednesday when a Baltimore County judge ruled that the operators of Royal Farms Arena are improperly using billboards that belong to him.
Circuit Judge...

While hospitalized with a fractured ankle and broken jaw, John Bonkowski reached for his smartphone to find details about the man who beat him outside a parking garage near the Inner Harbor.
He typed "Officer Michael McSpadden" into...

A Baltimore City plan to create an online database listing the outcome of civil lawsuits alleging police brutality is being billed as a tool for making the department more transparent after a Sun investigation this summer revealed the city has paid out...

The Rawlings-Blake administration argued Monday that a proposal to require police officers to wear body cameras is an illegal overreach of the City Council's authority.
City Solicitor George Nilson, who reports to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said...

Rejecting arguments by the Rawlings-Blake administration, key City Council members made clear Tuesday that they plan to push ahead with legislation to equip police officers with body cameras to film their interactions with the public.
The public safety...

If City Solicitor George Nilson is correct in saying that the City Council can't issue a legal requirement that the police conduct themselves in a certain way, the BCPD would represent a private armed force accountable only to the mayor ("City...

Civil rights groups are asking Maryland's highest court to strike down a state law capping the amount of money plaintiffs can receive after successfully suing a localgovernment, saying larger penalties are necessary to ensurejustice in...

Baltimore voters agreed Tuesday to let the City Council hire its own lawyer, a rare item of interest amid an otherwise humdrum lineup of mostly uncontested local races.For almost all of the offices in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, the real...

The Baltimore City Council overwhelmingly voted Monday to require all of Baltimore's nearly 3,000 police officers to wear body cameras — despite arguments from the mayor's office that the council's bill is illegal.City Councilman Warren Branch, the lead...

In an ideal world, the City Council and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake would work together to equip Baltimore police officers with body cameras that record their interactions with the public. The anecdotal evidence from departments that have adopted the...

Baltimore officials will begin this month posting the outcomes of all civil lawsuits alleging police brutality and will reconsider their policy of requiring plaintiffs to keep silent after settlements are reached — part of a series of changes made in...

It wasn't long after Ashley Overbey won approval for a $63,000 settlement from Baltimore's government that anonymous critics began their assault against her on the Internet. Commenting on news accounts of the settlement — which ended her lawsuit...